The Apprentice LA: Derek is Kicked to the Curb

This weeks task was a little more fun.

The candidates planned and executed a promotion for the new Lexus LS 460.

Kinetic is stuck for ideas and the ones they go with are bad ones, really bad.

Arrow gets right to work and plan a very impressive event even though they are annoyed that Surya has gotten all the credit for the prior wins.

In the board room:
Jenn, the losing PM, spent a lot of time blaming others and complaining that the task was complicated.
How complicated does she think the final task will be?

Dereck wasted no time being a smart ass and was sent home not laughing. By the way,
Dereks blog has not been updated since his firing, bummer

In the end, Jenn is sent home and Angela is sent off with a stern warning
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NBC Official site

Home Improvement Repairs

Apparently the shower has been leaking into the wall for
sometime and now that the leak is fixed, it is time to
fix the damage to the wall

Of course The Boyz are doing their best to assist and things
were slowed down for a bit while John tried to Rico back out from
UNDER the shower.
On top of that the litter boxes are in there and each boy
has had a turn much to John's disgust.

Yes, some very bad language has been used this morning.

=============================

Join NoRhett and RicoDammitt
at The Carvival of Cats
TacJammer hosts this weeks edition
See you there!

In Texas: Texas Independence Day

171 years ago today the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence took place at Washington-on-the-Brazos and the Republic of Texas was born.

Happy Birthday: Cat in the Hat

This old favorite is turning 50 years old.
Oh, how often have I wished for a Thing One and Thing Two to help me out around the house!

Official Birthday site

Tummy Tuesday!

It's Tummy Tuesday every Tuesday

at
Lisa Violet's Diary

On the Bayou

Some pretty birds from my morning walk

A White Heron, a daily treat

A Pink Spoonbill, a special treat

I couldn't get close enough for a good picture but
here is one from the Texas Dept of Wildlife.

Happy Birthday: Fritos!

Frito's is celebrating a 75th anniversary by featuring this
retro looking package. I'm thinking 75 years ago
you did not pay $2.49 a bag

Hey, anybody remember the Frito Kid???
How about the Frito Bandito?

Frito.com

Wordless Wednesday

The WW Hub

Happy Fat Tuesday!

What is Fat Tuesday?

Tummy Tuesday: The Fat Tuesday Edition

It's Tummy Tuesday every Tuesday

at
Lisa Violet's Diary

Kitty Movie Monday

Angel continues to stay just out of my reach
*sigh*



Kitty Movie Monday at YouTube

The Apprentice LA:

This week our teams are working to promote a sweepstakes for Priceline.com.
Project managers Surya and Aimee both must overcome dissension on their respective teams.
Neither succeed in this most difficult part of the task, but Surya and Team Arrow wins.

In the boardroom all fingers point to Aimee.
Clearly Trump agrees that leadership was lacking and sent Aimee to the limo as Kinetic sadly sulks off to live in Trump Tent City once again.

You know...
You would think this far into the process the tasks would become more challenging.
I mean...How hard is it to set up a kiosk at the mall and sign people up for a drawing?
And while I'm bitching, how about more task and less romance...yuck.

Priceline.com is giving away a chance to attend the live finale.

The Apprentice at Yahoo

NBC Official Site

On the Island: Mardi Gras!

It's that time again and if you can't make it to the celebration
you can catch a glimpse on the Galveston.com StrandCams

Let the good times roll!

Friday Cat Blogging: BRRrrrrrr

It's really COLD this morning and I sure hated to
leave my little foot warmers

Not that I was missed, in fact

That left room for one more


The Boyz have boarded the Friday Ark and
Don't miss Sunday's Carnival of the Cats
When it travels to Florida via Pet's Garden Blog


The MisAdventures of RicoLoco

Family News: Lexie J

Lost her first tooth!

Happy Anniversary: Josh and Lorie

Wishing you only happiness today and always

Work Related

I'm having a really shitty day.
Just thought I would share that.

Happy Birthday Sydney!

We Love you!!

The Apprentice LA: Arrow Feels the Sting

This week our teams are sent out to harvest bees, bottle the honey and sell the goods at a local grocery store. It was rather disturbing seeing them all decked out in the bee keeper suits and I was hoping no one is allergic to bee stings.

Back at the office both teams are taking a painful amount of time choosing a bottle and a label for the product. This being a point of sale type challenge and not a marketing one, they really could have used about anything for the label and expended more effort making colorful banners and signs for the display tables.
The ones they used looked pretty bad.

After bottling and labeling has been completed, the real competition begins.

Arrow seems to be doing well even though Aaron is floundering in the sales area.
Kinetic feels they are falling behind and Derek puts his bee keeper garb back on. The gold medalist is featured at one table and these tactics help them pull ahead to win the task.
Yup! It's back to Tent City for Arrow!

In the board room, the team tries to throw Surya under the bus for being annoying.
No doubt he IS annoying, but clearly he did not lose this task.
Aimee is much tougher as a judge than she was as project manager.
She better be careful making enemies in case the players get moved around in future tasks.

Aaron makes a classic mistake by inviting Nicole into the boardroom and in the same breath saying she should not be fired.
The Donald hates that.
Aaron you're fired!

The Apprentice at YAHOO

The Apprentice at NBC

The Apprentice Views

The Armchair Apprentice

Friday Cat Blogging: Sampson

My Mom said goodbye to her best friend yesterday

Sampson was almost 20 years old and was loved by all who met him.
Rest in peace our pretty boy.
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The Friday Ark
Carnival of Cats
Sunday evening at When Cats Attack

No Spay Today

I got Angel in the carrier for her spay this morning, not an easy feat and when I was putting it in the car the door popped open and she got away.
All I could do was watch her run.
The Clinic does strays on Thursdays, hopefully I can get her next week.
Thank goodness it happened at home but crap....I am just so darn annoyed

Update: The clinic will work in tomorrow if I can catch her again.
She was running pretty fast...sigh.

Update 2: She's back and content to glare at me from across the yard

The Friday Ark is up and running and don't miss Sunday's Carnival of Cats hosted this week at When Cats Attack

Wordless Wednesday

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Join Wordless Wednesday

Fun With Site Meter

Someone clicked on an old Mardi Gras Post from last year searching for

mardi gras galveston island flashing pictures

Shame on you...ha.

By the way it IS that time again and the official Mardi Gras Galveston site is HERE

Puppy Bowl

I'm not even a dog person but this is just too darn cute.
This French Bulldog is my favorite with his serious little face.
Go MILO!

Friday Cat Blogging: Abandoned Angel

email rafe@heckyeah.net if you are interested in
adopting this pretty girl (Houston/Galveston area)

Update: A fellow blogger has offered funds for Angel's spay
God bless you
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Friday Ark on Friday
Carnival of Cats on Sunday at IFOC

The Apprentice LA: Derek's Blog

Somehow, I just don't find this very amusing although I'm sure it is meant to be.

Wordless Wednesday

Tummy Tale Tuesday: The Stephen King Edition

So I get this book for "Cell" for Christmas (Thanks Jessi) and I start reading it and am already creeped out when I get to page 34 and a character mentions he has a cat.

The cat's name is Rafe.


Rafe?
Who names a cat Rafe?

Oh, by the way it's Tummy Tuesday over at LisaViolet's Diary


Hey Rafe?
Wanna show off your tummy?


Guess not.

http://www.stephenking.com/

The Apprentice LA: Shut UP, Marissa!

Team Arrow now joined by Surya refocused the efforts and at long last pulled off a win.

The task was to create a new "bowl" for El Pollo Loco, a popular fast food style Mexican restaurant.

Arrow came up with and aggressively promoted their Chicken Tortilla Bowl.

Kinetic and the oddly named Paradise bowl could not compete and the team was sent to Tent City after a huge loss.

Last year's winner Sean was on hand this week and cited poor marketing and POS strategies as being the downfall for Team Kinetic. I wish he would have tasted the food, because I suspect the reason for the loss is that putting Mango in a chicken bowl just sounds gross.

In the boardroom, I was disappointed that again no one focused on the product itself for being the reason for the loss. All attention is on Marissa and she defended her position by making the most classic of all the Apprentice mistakes.
Not shutting up.

The Apprentice at YAHOO

The Apprentice at NBC

The Appentice Views

The Armchair Apprentice

Jury Duty

So after 5 weeks of causing me worry about working around 12 days of on-call jury duty for the Southern District of Texas Federal Court my service was first postponed and now cancelled completely.
Cool!

Work Related: Full of CRAP!

I showed a house today to a nice couple..new clients (well 8 houses) but anyway...this one home looked nice enough on the outside, however the inside was quite another matter.

We walked back to the bedrooms and both rooms were covered wall to wall in dog shit.
The stench was nearly unbearable.
I've never been so disgusted and my poor clients were gagging and running out the door.

Now, this is a repo and they are always dirty but this was just plain shocking and nasty and not to mention unhealthy.

I apologized profusely and even though we are not supposed to say anything negative about other agents I said I would NEVER put my name on a sign in front of a listing in this condition.
Well, then the husband started laughing because the sign in the yard said..."Show Place"
He said that WAS quite a show....ha.

I am calling this agent tomorrow and tell him I will NEVER show one of his listings again and how DARE he not warn buyers agents about the condition of this property.
I mean seriously...yuck.

On the Island: BB King Hospitalized

The lengendary BB King was forced to cancel his performance at the Grand Old Opera House last night after a sudden illness. We attended the Blues fest in Dallas several times and always enjoyed his show.

By the way I got a spam email this morning (well Rafe did) with BB King Hospitalised (sic) in the title.
Tacky!!

UPDATE: Good News!

Friday Cat Blogging: Why I don't make the bed

(Click for full size)
The best of the pet bloggers board The Friday Ark and it's
all cats on Sunday's Carnival of the Cats
hosted this week at Mind of Mog

See you there!

Wordless Wednesday

(click for full size)

Tummy Tuesday!

It's Tummy Tuesday every Tuesday over at LisaViolet's Diary

The Apprentice LA: Wimpy Wimpy Wimpy!

Following last week's tough boardroom, Michelle felt the pressure of not being "liked" by her team-mates.

As promised, Team Kinetic had the task off and were treated to a day of pampering at the prestigious Lowes Hotel.

Team Arrow, now divided were given a task of creating a bus tour.
Aaron and his team of three quickly gel and produce a fun and lively tour complete with Laker girls signing autographs.

Even though Michelle had a team of four, she just could not make an intelligent decision and the result may have been comical had it not been so painful to watch.
I couldn't help but think part of the problem is that she only speaks in Cliches.
It's very hard to take a leader serious that is constantly talking like a motivational pamphlet.

It was clear to everyone who would be fired, and Michelle quickly resigned saying this process is
"not what she signed up for"
Like I said she only speaks in Cliches.

Sadly, the winning half of Team Arrow is sent back to Tent City with only the pride of the win as a reward.

The Apprentice at YAHOO

The Apprentice at NBC

The Appentice Views

The Armchair Apprentice

All Done!

And Kitty Approved!

Home Improvement!

Yes, my toilet IS in the bathtub!

Following a rather dramatic plumbing issue we have decided
to replace the bathroom carpet with tile.

Now everything is pulled up and ready to go!

Oh, this is looking good.
But, now I want to paint and get all new stuff.

To be continued!

The Ring!

Now that a certain family member has been personally notified and is at no risk of finding out important family related items by reading them in a blog.....The ring.

Congrats Chandra and James!

We are so happy for you both!

Jury Duty

After spending the last few days in a panic trying to get organized where I can run a business during a 12 day on call jury summons I find out my service has been postponed and will now begin on the 29th, not the 22nd as previously ordered.

Shit.